At a glance
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Walk this pathway
8steps · 75min · teacher · student · deep
The Mongol empire
From the steppe to the largest contiguous land empire: who the Mongols were and how they fought.
The invasions
Khwarazm and Khurasan first: what the Arabic and Persian sources describe.
The fall of Baghdad, 1258
Hulagu before the city and the end of the caliphate there: the event and its conflicting numbers.
Ayn Jalut, 1260
The Mamluks halt the Mongol advance in Palestine: why they succeeded.
The Ilkhanate
A Mongol state in Iran and Iraq that embraces Islam within two generations.
The Mamluk state
Cairo as the capital of the Muslim world after Baghdad: soldiers, learning and architecture.
Ibn Khaldun and the Muqaddima
A fourteenth-century historian asks why states rise and fall.
Timur and Samarqand
A new conqueror from Central Asia, and a capital built with architects brought from afar.
What you now know
Mastery check
Five questions on what you walked through. Marked on your device; nothing is kept but the stamp in your passport when you pass.
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Answer key (for the teacher)
- In which year did Baghdad fall to Hulagu? — 1258(Learn it at step 3: The fall of Baghdad, 1258)
- What happened at Ayn Jalut in 1260? — The Mamluks halted the Mongol advance(Learn it at step 4: Ayn Jalut, 1260)
- What did the Ilkhans do after two generations ruling Iran and Iraq? — Embraced Islam(Learn it at step 5: The Ilkhanate)
- What question does Ibn Khaldun ask in the Muqaddima? — Why states rise and fall(Learn it at step 7: Ibn Khaldun and the Muqaddima)
- Which city did Timur make his capital? — Samarqand(Learn it at step 8: Timur and Samarqand)
Tell it back
Tell what you learned in your own words. What you write stays on this device only, and no one else reads it.
- I can name internal and external factors in the decline of the Abbasid caliphate.
- I can explain how at least two societies came out of the Mongol shock in different ways.
- I can use one concept from Ibn Khaldun to read a historical event.
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Write at least two sentences, or tick that you told it, to earn the stamp in your passport.
Overview
A CHW3M pathway on the century that changed the Muslim world: the Mongol invasions, the fall of Baghdad in 1258, the Mamluk stand at Ayn Jalut, the Ilkhans' conversion, Ibn Khaldun reading the collapse of states, and Timur's Samarqand.
For the teacher
Seventy-five minutes for advanced classes; level 'deep'. The focus is evidence: conflicting numbers, sources in more than one language, and what a historian does with them.
Sources
- The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: Canadian and World Studies (2015)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “The Mongols and after: the fall of Baghdad, Ayn Jalut and Timur”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/exhibits/pathway-g11-chw3m-mongols-and-after/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.